The Accidental Asian. Eric Liu, 1998,
ISBN 0-375-70486-8, 203 pp.
The Accidental Asian. Eric Liu, 1998,
ISBN 0-375-70486-8, 203 pp. This is a thoughtful, introspective book about what it is to be second generation Asian-American and what it means to be Chinese. Eric Liu is a talented young writer and former presidential speechwriter. His parents immigrated from Taiwan (grandparents from the mainland) and he calls himself an ABC, American Born Chinese. Interestingly, Liu says he has never been the victim of overt racism. His writing is full of insightful gems. Any parent of a Chinese-born child should read this, perhaps several times.
Daughter of China---A True Story
of Love and Betrayal. Meihong Xu and Larry Engelmann, 1999, ISBN
0-471-35673-5, 349 pp. The true story of Xu Meihong, educated and trained as a People’s Liberation Army intelligence officer, who fell in love with Larry Engelmann, one of her American professors. Xu suffered greatly for her indiscretion, quickly became disillusioned with the PLA and the Chinese government, and, due to Engelmann’s unbelievable courage and persistence, managed to emigrate to America as his wife. This was a real miracle---safe to say not many former PLA intelligence officers are allowed to leave China. An incredible story.
The Good Earth. Pearl S. Buck,
1931, ISBN 0-671-51012-6, 360 pp. This is the classic, Nobel prize-winning story of the every day life of the Chinese peasant farmer Wang Lung. Set in Anhui province in the early 1900s, it was the first novel to represent the Chinese as “real people” at a time when Americans knew almost nothing about China except negative stereotypes. It had tremendous influence upon Western thinking regarding the Chinese. If you’re interested in recent Chinese history, especially family relationships, this is a very enjoyable way to learn more.
Red Azalea. Anchee Min, 1994, ISBN
0-7857-6522-0, 336 pp.I was disappointed in this book; I had heard about it for years and looked forward to reading this national bestseller by Anchee Min, a woman for whom I have great respect. It’s an interesting first-person narrative, supposedly autobiographical, about a young girl’s experiences during the Cultural Revolution. But it gradually evolves into a dreary lesbian love story and loses its momentum.
Legacies---A
Chinese Mosaic. Betty Bao Lord, 1990, ISBN 0-449-90620-5, 242 pp.
Betty Bao Lord was born in China, raised in America, and became the wife of the US Ambassador to China (1985-1989). This is a fascinating series of interviews with Chinese from all walks of life, interspersed with details of Lord’s own life and those of her family members still in China. A poignant writer, Lord captures perfectly the contradictions and tragedies of modern China.
Pearl S. Buck---A Cultural
Biography. Peter Conn, 1996,
ISBN 0-521-63989-1, 382 pp. Written by the father of a Korean girl adopted through Pearl Buck’s Welcome House agency, this is an excellent, well-written biography. It’s very detailed and well balanced. Conn portrays Buck sympathetically, but also discusses her faults and weaknesses. Full of information about Buck’s many years in China, anyone interested in Chinese adoption should enjoy this.
American Goddess at the Rape of
Nanking---The Courage of Minnie Vautrin.
Hua-ling Hu, 2000, ISBN 0-8093-2303-6, 147 pp.
(3 stars)The story of a little-known hero, a woman who risked her life to save many thousands of Chinese women and children. Vautrin was a missionary and Dean of Studies at Ginling College in 1937 Nanking (now Nanjing), when the Japanese army slaughtered an estimated 300,000 people. Vautrin courageously defied the Japanese and managed to protect thousands of Chinese woman within the college walls. Tragically, she committed suicide in 1941. Well researched account without the graphic photos, a consideration if you have children who may get into your bookshelf one day.
A Mother’s Ordeal---One
Woman’s Fight Against China’s One-Child Policy.
Steven W. Mosher, 1993, ISBN 0-06-097614-4, 335 pp.
I’d heard about this book for a long time and finally found it via special order on-line. It was worth the wait. It’s the engrossing story of Chi An, who suffered through the Great Leap Forward and resulting famine, as well as the Cultural Revolution, and was eventually trained as a nurse. She was ultimately placed in charge of enforcing population control for women at her truck factory. This included the routine performance of abortions, many of them late-term and forced, and the involuntary sterilization of women who had met their “quota.” Chi An’s husband came to the US in the late 1980s as a student and she later successfully applied for a visa to stay with him. While in America, she accidentally became pregnant with her second child. When the Chinese government told her she must abort the child, she and her family applied for political asylum. As a direct result of her ordeal, President Bush in 1990 signed an executive order offering sanctuary to all Chinese couples fleeing the one-child program. This book puts a human face on the brutal one-child policy.
The Small Woman.
Alan Burgess, 1959, ISBN 1-56849-184-0, 221 pp.
The only biography of missionary Gladys Aylward I’ve been able to find, this one is a gem. If you haven’t heard of Aylward, you should know about her. She was a genuine hero, an intrepid British missionary who arrived in China in 1930 at age 19. She was devoted to her adopted homeland and even became a naturalized Chinese citizen. In her most daring adventure, she singlehandedly led almost 100 children on a month-long journey over the mountains to escape advancing Japanese forces. She legally adopted five Chinese children and was “mother” to countless more. Aylward was portrayed by Ingrid Bergman in the film “Inn of the Sixth Happiness,” an excellent movie.
Chopstick Childhood---In A Town of
Silver Spoons. Nona Mock Wyman,
1999, ISBN 0-8351-2645-5, 280 pp. This is the very unique autobiographical story of a woman who, in 1935, at age two, was left by her mother at an orphanage for Chinese-American girls in Los Gatos, California. Fortunately, the girls never experienced any discrimination in the local community and Wyman seemed to have had a very happy childhood. However, her writing style is fairly unskilled and all the assorted details of her childhood rapidly become tiring.
Two Years in the Melting Pot.
Liu Zongren, 1988, ISBN 0-8351-2035-X, 221 pp.
An interesting, but dated, book by a Chinese journalist who studied at a Chicago university from 1980-82 before returning to his family in China. This was back when China was still a very closed society, with very little information about the West filtering through. Liu’s observations are very revealing, both about American culture and Chinese attitudes. He ultimately decides the American way of life, system of government, and standard of living are not for him. Liu’s national pride won’t allow him to concede that freedom and liberty lead to prosperity; he longs for his simple life back home. Unfortunately, he also buys into simplistic rationalizations of why capitalism wouldn’t work in China. A little disappointing, but a real eye-opener.
The Chinese. Jasper Becker,
2000, ISBN 0-684-84412-5, 377 pp. (4
stars)A
classic account of modern Chinese society.
Becker’s facts are well documented as he attempts to explain why the
Chinese government makes the disastrous decisions it so often does.
China is not homogeneous and too many writers try to make sweeping
statements about the entire nation; Becker avoids this.
He tackles subjects such as health, education, the one-child policy, the
military, economic reform, and the incredible scale of corruption at top levels
of the party. Not as easy to digest
as China Wakes, this is probably for the more serious student of China, but
it’s not too difficult and I strongly recommend it.
Fifth Chinese Daughter,
Jade Snow Wong, 1995 (5th printing), University of Washington Press.This is a
delightful account of Jade Snow’s childhood and young adulthood in San
Francisco’s Chinatown from the 1920s through the 1940s.
She wrote this autobiography in 1945 when she was only 24.
It’s an insightful portrayal of Chinese culture in America and Jade
Snow’s “upbringing by the 19th century standards of Imperial
China” from the child’s perspective. Her
story is really about how she refused to let her race determine her path in life
and how she refused to allow the racism she encountered to stop her from
achieving. In an introduction
written in 1989, she refreshingly asserts that, “My Chinese heritage has been
my strength and advantage.” Another interesting thing is that she refers to herself as
American-Chinese instead of the more common Chinese-American.
This will be a fun book to read aloud to our daughters when they’re 9
or 10 years old—it’s only 240 pages.
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang, 1991, Anchor Books,
Doubleday. This book is 520
pages of family history, from the 1920s to the present day.
It’s an incredibly detailed account of the tragic lives of the
author’s grandmother, who was concubine to a warlord, and mother, who was an
early communist revolutionary. The
author herself was a member of the Red Guards in the 1960s.
Jung Chang does a thorough job of taking the reader through the communist
revolution, the Hundred Flowers campaign, the Anti-Rightist campaign, the Great
Leap Forward and resulting famine, and the Cultural Revolution, with all the
resultant suffering by millions of Chinese.
Her family was more fortunate than most, since both her parents were
high-ranking communist officials. An
amazing amount of history is packed into this personal account and you’ll
learn a lot by reading this. I
found the book to be tough going early on but it’s worth sticking with it all
the way through.
Falling Leaves: The True
Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter, Adeline Yen Mah, 1997, John Wiley and
Sons, Inc.Adeline Yen Mah
was born into a wealthy family in 1937 China.
Her mother died in childbirth and her father immediately remarried a
younger woman who mistreated Adeline and her four siblings.
Her father was both dominated by his young wife and indifferent to his
children’s suffering. Adeline was
tormented by her family but was fortunate enough to have an aunt who loved her
dearly and tried to protect her. She
attended exclusive boarding schools in China, Hong Kong, and England, and
eventually became a physician. Yes,
Adeline was emotionally abused, but she led a life of privilege while most
Chinese at the time struggled just to survive.
I grew increasingly tired of her complaints as the book progressed.
As an adult, she actually brought on much of the abuse through her own
actions. Instead of putting her
former life behind her and starting over again in America, she persisted in
attempting to gain the approval of her parents, an impossible task.
An interesting book to read, though.
Life and Death in Shanghai,
Nien Cheng is a
genuine hero. She describes how she
survived 6 years of solitary confinement during the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution through sheer determination and faith in God, while maintaining her
honor and dignity. She’s one of those rare human beings who sticks to her
principles because it’s the right thing to do, despite the personal pain and
suffering she endured as a result. Someone
told me she didn’t finish the book because it was too depressing.
But it’s more than just an account of her time in prison.
A good part of her story is before and after her imprisonment.
It is heartbreaking, but if you
want a first-hand, honest account of what happened during the Cultural
Revolution, this is it.
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power, Nicholas D.
Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, 1994, Vintage Books.Wow.
I ripped through this book, a fascinating account by two correspondents
for the New York Times who lived in Beijing from 1988-1994.
There are plenty of surprises here.
Written in an anecdotal manner that makes the subject come alive, this
husband-wife team has published a comprehensive view of present-day China
provided through interviews with rural farmers, ethnic minorities, rich
entrepreneurs, political dissidents, high-ranking officials, local bureaucrats,
desperately poor peasants, small merchants, etc.
They also shed new insight into communism, corruption, capitalism,
economic trends, and China’s future. A
must read for anyone interested in China.
Coming Home Crazy,
Bill Holm, 1990, Milkweed Editions.I started out
liking this book and ended up barely being able to tolerate it.
It’s written by a professor from a small American college who lived in
the ancient Tang capital of Xi’an (Shaanxi Province) during a one-year
teaching assignment in 1986. It’s
very funny, sometimes touching, and you get a sense of life in the real China,
away from Beijing and Guangzhou. His
descriptions of Chinese landscapes and the Chinese people are beautiful.
But his ego quickly ruins the book.
He constantly brags about his high-brow tastes in music and literature
and disparages American culture at every opportunity. He’s so embarrassed to be an American that he presents
himself as Icelandic to the Chinese. He
blames Ronald Reagan for everything, including his American students’ apathy
in class; it couldn’t be his teaching, could it?
He also has an irritating habit of referring to God as “she.”
I suppose he’s trying to be cute.
Despite these flaws, it’s a worthwhile book to read because of his
unique observations of everyday life in China.
What’s in a Chinese Name?,
Lin Shan, 1986 (reprinted 1998), 200 pp, ISBN 981-01-2004-4.This is a wonderful guide to Chinese names. It includes sections on why names are important to the Chinese, the origin of Chinese surnames, and how names should be influenced by zodiac signs. The author then lists Chinese given names in both Hanyu pinyin and Chinese characters. This is where you could look up a Chinese name (let’s use Bai Lu) and see what it means. Without the Chinese characters you’ll have several choices for meanings and not know which one to choose. Once you have the characters, you can see that Bai means white and Lu means jade, so her name is White Jade. It also has a great section in the back where you can look up an English name (let’s use Lori) and find a Chinese name that sounds close to the same. You’ll have several choices, so if you don’t like the meaning when you look it up, try another one! I found Le (happy or cheerful) Rui (auspicious or lucky). I have a feeling this is how they make your chop in China. To ensure your name makes sense, you’ll want to consult a Chinese speaker, but this is a lot of fun.
Cradles of Civilization: China—Ancient
Culture, Modern Land, General Editor:
Robert E. Murowchick, 1994, 192 pp, ISBN 0-8061-2683-3.If you’re
looking for an easy-to-read, concise history of China with lots of tables,
charts, illustrations, and color photos, this is it!
I wanted to learn some Chinese history, but didn’t want to wade through
100 pages on each dynasty. You can
actually read this cover-to-cover and not get bored.
There are absolutely beautiful color photos on every single page, some of
which are breathtaking. It’s a
large “coffee table” book divided into three sections: The Land of the
Yellow Earth (geography and people), A View of the Past (by far the longest
section), and Continuity and Change (recent history and the future).
It’ll probably cost you $30 or $40 but it’s well worth it.
I was very disappointed with this book and don’t recommend it. The first thing that struck me is the recurring theme that the Chinese like their lives just the way they are and don’t need freedom, human rights, or democracy. They like the “stability” of a totalitarian government—just think of the chaos that would ensue if the Chinese were suddenly free! The book makes several condescending statements about the Chinese, lamenting that their “puritanical” attitude toward sex, for example, isn’t as advanced as that of the Western world. My guess is that the author had a drink thrown in his face one too many times. There are so many factual errors, tired cliches, and sweeping statements in this book that I got the distinct impression the authors don’t know what they’re talking about. One particularly egregious error is that the number killed in the 1958-1961 famine is underreported by a factor of ten! But this fits in well with the book’s “the communist government isn’t all that bad” theme. They also erroneously state that all couples who have baby girls are allowed to try again for a boy, then go on to pronounce the Chinese “lucky” to have the one-child policy. Unbelievable.
Fodor’s Exploring China,
Christopher Knowles, 1997, 286 pp, ISBN: 0-679-03471-4.This is a terrific travel book; I read it cover-to-cover. It has gorgeous color photos on every page, great maps, and is organized by regions, not provinces, which is a useful perspective. The first 79 pages are a well-written summary of Chinese culture and history, perfect for someone who just wants a brief overview. There are dozens of “Focus on” sections throughout the book, which go into more detail about things like silk, kung fu, jade, Tibetan Buddhism, Peking Opera, the Silk Road, etc. Expensive at $22.00, but worth it.
Hungry Ghosts---Mao's Secret
Famine, Jasper Becker, 1996, Henry Holt andMeticulously researched account of the catastrophe called the Great Leap Forward and the subsequent famine of 1958-1962. Considered the most devastating famine in world history, it killed an estimated 30 million, that's million, Chinese. Even more incredible is the fact the famine was entirely man-made and completely preventable. The details that emerge from Becker's research, including tales of widespread cannibalism, will horrify you. Yet, for a variety of reasons, all these facts have only recently come to light. If you have any lingering doubt about the evil that was Mao Zedong, this book will dispel it once and for all.
Red China Blues, Jan Wong, 1996, Doubleday, 395 pp, ISBN 0-385-48232-9. Hilarious autobiography of a 19-year old star struck, Canadian-Chinese Maoist, who, in 1972, traveled to China to take part in the glorious Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It doesn't take long til her eyes are opened to the utter ridiculousness and ultimate horror of those years. This is a fun book to read, and Ms. Wong's incredible experiences will engage and amuse you. But the author's greatest strength is her ability to laugh at herself and how she was completely fooled by the pro-PRC Western propaganda to which she was exposed in Canada and the U.S. Best quote: "But unlike my peers I never got into drugs or alcohol. Maoism was all I ever needed to get high, although in hindsight it's questionable which would have inflicted more brain damage."
Troublemaker-One Man's Crusade Against China's Cruelty, Harry Wu, 1996,Harry Wu, now a U.S. citizen living in New York, exposes the brutal Chinese labor camp system he calls the laogai, where he himself was imprisoned for 19 years for "counterrevolutionary thought." Wu, perhaps China's best-known dissident, slipped back into China several times in the 1990s and emerged with tangible evidence of the terrible fate of those who speak out against the government. He literally risked his life to make these pilgrimages. All students of Chinese history and culture should read this harrowing account or one of the several other books written by this courageous man who is determined to bring attention to one of China's darkest secrets.
Red Flower of China, Zhai Zhenhua, 1992, Soho Press, 245 pp, ISBN1-56947-009-X. Born in 1951, Zhenhua was 15 when the Cultural Revolution erupted. It began in the universities and high schools and, as an idealistic student and natural leader, she was caught up in the excitement and soon became a Red Guard. In this amazingly detailed account of those years, including her "re-education" in the countryside and subsequent disillusionment with Mao, Zhenhua admits to taking part in the torture and even murder of her fellow Chinese. Though her story is honest and compelling, the book isn't a page-turner. In fact, I was able to frequently put it down and had to come back to it several times to finish.
Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts: Festivals of
China, Carol Stepanchuk and Charles Wong,
1991, 143 pp, ISBN 0-8351-2481-9.This is an enjoyable book that will tell you more than you probably ever wanted to know about Chinese holidays and festivals, but in a readable, entertaining way. There’s a section on China’s minorities and their unique festivals, and also very handy appendices that explain the Chinese lunar calendar and list the major festivals by lunar date. Lots of good information, including some color photos.
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